[{"publication_identifier":{"issn":["2663-337X"],"isbn":["978-3-99078-076-3"]},"has_accepted_license":"1","publication_status":"published","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/","acknowledged_ssus":[{"_id":"ScienComp"}],"ddc":["539","570"],"language":[{"iso":"eng"}],"file":[{"content_type":"application/pdf","date_updated":"2026-09-11T22:30:02Z","date_created":"2026-03-12T20:38:52Z","file_name":"2026_Dunajova_Zuzana_Thesis_pdfA.pdf","embargo":"2026-09-11","file_id":"21446","access_level":"open_access","creator":"zdunajov","checksum":"47ce6a48a0c63f28eca6e64c9ffd2c84","relation":"main_file","file_size":14662770},{"creator":"zdunajov","relation":"source_file","file_size":32961408,"checksum":"5dec5afdffd47c2b0b162d0fe1bed925","content_type":"application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document","date_updated":"2026-09-11T22:30:02Z","date_created":"2026-03-12T20:40:18Z","file_name":"Thesis-Dunajova_source_file.docx","access_level":"closed","file_id":"21447","embargo_to":"open_access"}],"doi_confirm":"1","oa_version":"Published Version","status":"public","date_created":"2026-03-11T08:30:49Z","_id":"21423","oa":1,"date_updated":"2026-10-16T08:12:11Z","day":"11","tmp":{"name":"Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)","short":"CC BY-NC-SA (4.0)","image":"/images/cc_by_nc_sa.png","legal_code_url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/legalcode"},"department":[{"_id":"GradSch"},{"_id":"EdHa"}],"citation":{"mla":"Dunajova, Zuzana. <i>Geometry-Driven Self-Organization of Migrating Cells and Chiral Filaments</i>. Institute of Science and Technology Austria, 2026, doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.15479/AT-ISTA-21423\">10.15479/AT-ISTA-21423</a>.","apa":"Dunajova, Z. (2026). <i>Geometry-driven self-organization of migrating cells and chiral filaments</i>. Institute of Science and Technology Austria. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.15479/AT-ISTA-21423\">https://doi.org/10.15479/AT-ISTA-21423</a>","ista":"Dunajova Z. 2026. Geometry-driven self-organization of migrating cells and chiral filaments. Institute of Science and Technology Austria.","short":"Z. Dunajova, Geometry-Driven Self-Organization of Migrating Cells and Chiral Filaments, Institute of Science and Technology Austria, 2026.","chicago":"Dunajova, Zuzana. “Geometry-Driven Self-Organization of Migrating Cells and Chiral Filaments.” Institute of Science and Technology Austria, 2026. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.15479/AT-ISTA-21423\">https://doi.org/10.15479/AT-ISTA-21423</a>.","ama":"Dunajova Z. Geometry-driven self-organization of migrating cells and chiral filaments. 2026. doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.15479/AT-ISTA-21423\">10.15479/AT-ISTA-21423</a>","ieee":"Z. Dunajova, “Geometry-driven self-organization of migrating cells and chiral filaments,” Institute of Science and Technology Austria, 2026."},"project":[{"name":"Motile active matter models of migrating cells and chiral filaments","_id":"34d75525-11ca-11ed-8bc3-89b6307fee9d","grant_number":"26360"}],"year":"2026","alternative_title":["ISTA Thesis"],"acknowledgement":"Finally, I gratefully acknowledge funding from the DOC Fellowship of the Austrian Academy\r\nof Sciences (OeAW): grant agreement 26360.","user_id":"8b945eb4-e2f2-11eb-945a-df72226e66a9","OA_place":"repository","corr_author":"1","article_processing_charge":"No","doi":"10.15479/AT-ISTA-21423","title":"Geometry-driven self-organization of migrating cells and chiral filaments","date_published":"2026-03-11T00:00:00Z","publisher":"Institute of Science and Technology Austria","degree_awarded":"PhD","page":"110","month":"03","author":[{"id":"4B39F286-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","last_name":"Dunajova","first_name":"Zuzana","full_name":"Dunajova, Zuzana"}],"related_material":{"record":[{"relation":"part_of_dissertation","status":"public","id":"13314"},{"id":"13116","status":"public","relation":"research_data"},{"relation":"research_data","id":"21439","status":"public"},{"relation":"part_of_dissertation","id":"21427","status":"public"}]},"file_date_updated":"2026-09-11T22:30:02Z","supervisor":[{"first_name":"Edouard B","full_name":"Hannezo, Edouard B","last_name":"Hannezo","id":"3A9DB764-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","orcid":"0000-0001-6005-1561"}],"abstract":[{"text":"Biological systems, such as cytoskeletal filaments and multicellular collectives, exhibit rich \r\nself-organization driven by their intrinsic activity and physical constraints. Across scales, \r\ngeometry plays a central role: the shape of active units and the structure of their environment \r\nstrongly influence how order emerges in these far-from-equilibrium systems. In this thesis, \r\nwe combine minimal active-matter models with bottom-up in vitro experiments to identify \r\nthe principles by which geometry and activity shape collective behavior in biological matter. \r\nAt the subcellular scale, we investigate how the physical properties of chiral FtsZ filaments \r\ngovern their large-scale organization. Using a mesoscopic model validated by reconstituted \r\nfilament assays, we show that filament shape, intrinsic curvature, and flexibility, together with \r\nactivity-driven straightening, determine whether filaments form chiral rings, polar bands, or \r\nnematic-like states. Our model shows that small changes in filament mechanics produce large \r\nshifts in collective structures, revealing how the geometry of individual filaments amplifies \r\nthrough activity to control patterns relevant for bacterial cytokinesis. \r\nAt the cellular scale, we examine how geometry of the external environment influences \r\ncollective cancer cell migration. Experiments in controlled microfabricated obstacle \r\nenvironments demonstrate that geometric disorder alone can induce a transition from \r\ncollective to single-cell invasion. A minimal model of active particles in disordered geometries \r\nreproduces these effects, demonstrating that cell dissemination results both from local \r\ngeometrical constraints and a global integration of spatial disorder over time. Surprisingly, \r\nthis transition is accompanied by a change in the universality class of interface dynamics, \r\nrevealing that cell-environment interactions can shift the collective behavior of an invasive \r\nfront purely through mechanics.  \r\nIn the last system, we study how cell-intrinsic geometry and chirality affect collective motion \r\nin confined and unconfined settings. Using a minimal model inspired by in vitro experiments, \r\nwe analyze motile cells that exhibit persistent rotation due to intrinsic left-right asymmetry. \r\nIn circular confinement, this simplified chiral model reproduces several experimentally \r\nobserved features within specific parameter regimes. At high densities in unconfined \r\nenvironments, however, intrinsic chirality becomes masked even before the onset of the \r\njamming transition. These results show that single-cell geometric asymmetry does not \r\nnecessarily translate into large-scale chiral flows, offering new insight into how forces and \r\nsymmetries shape collective motion in dense cellular systems. \r\nOverall, this work uncovers how geometric constraints – embedded in the intrinsic \r\narchitecture of an active filament or encoded in the complexity of a microenvironment \r\ncouple to active forces to generate different classes of complex behaviors. ","lang":"eng"}],"type":"dissertation","fulldoi":"https://doi.org/10.15479/AT-ISTA-21423"}]